Sunday, November 22, 2009

ThanksKilling (2009)

Unless you count the "Thanksgiving" mock trailer Eli Roth directed for "Grindhouse", there has never been a horror movie set in Thanksgiving. Sure, Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day and New Years Day have had their shot, but Thanksgiving has always been left out. Well just in time for the Holidays, "ThanksKilling" tries to make up for that. Too bad that the end result is awful.

The plot deals with a group of friends headed home for Thanksgiving break. Their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, so they decide to camp out for the night. Anyways, they find a sign that tells them of a Native American man who cursed a Thanksgiving turkey as payback for the way the white man fucked his people over. Before you can say "gobble gobble", the evil turkey is resurrected by dog pee (no, really) and decides whitey must pay.

Sounds like a bad Horror Comedy version of Fred Olen Ray's 1983 "classic" "Scalps", doesn't it? Well yeah, you might say that. This is a movie made for fans of Troma movies. You know, the kind of Troma movies that were bad, and knew it. The thing though, is that a few of those movies had more talent and charm on display than this does. This is a movie that's not only bad, but tries to be bad and relishes in that. The movie has gore, bad jokes and one-liners, a bunch of actors trying to act like bad actors, a turkey on woman rape (I kid you not) and terrible attempts at being politically incorrect and edgy. Granted, the turkey does get away with a few amusing one-liners, and the whole thing cost about $3,500 to make, but that's no real excuse for this.

I never really cared for Horror Comedy movies that try to be bad. They want to be like Troma, but they lack what makes movies like "The Toxic Avenger" and "Class of Nuke 'Em High" so much fun. They are just sub par imitators.

You know that annoying stoner who loves to sniff his own farts? This is the cinematic equivalent of that man. You don't want to hang out with him, so why would you want to watch a movie he and his friends made?

About Me

A Wright State University Graduate, Joseph Howell has been an avid horror fan since he was seven or eight years old-he has Godzilla movies to thank for that. He's now devoted some of his time to watching (and at times suffering through) horror and exploitation fair to review for your reading pleasure. Oh, and he loves Cherry Coke Zero, and he recommends eating popcorn while watching older genre movies.